1 Data Types

CHAR

The CHAR type specifies a fixed length character string. If you insert a value into a CHAR column and the value is shorter than the defined column length, then TimesTen blank-pads the value to the column length. If you insert a value into a CHAR column and the value is longer than the defined length, then TimesTen returns an error.

By default, the column length is defined in bytes. Use the CHAR qualifier to define the column length in characters. The size of a character ranges from 1 byte to 4 bytes depending on the database character set. The BYTE and CHAR qualifiers override the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS parameter setting. For more information about NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS, see "ALTER SESSION" and "Setting globalization support attributes" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Operations Guide.

The following example creates a table. Columns are defined with type CHAR and TT_CHAR. Blank padded comparison semantics are used for these types.

Command> CREATE TABLE typedemo (name CHAR (20), nnme2 TT_CHAR (20));
Command> INSERT INTO typedemo VALUES ('SMITH     ','SMITH     ');
1 row inserted.
Command> DESCRIBE typedemo;
Table USER.TYPEDEMO:
  Columns:
    NAME                            CHAR (20)
    NAME2                           TT_CHAR (20)
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> SELECT * FROM typedemo;
< SMITH     , SMITH      >
1 row found.
Command> # Expect 1 row found; blank-padded comparison semantics
Command> SELECT * FROM typedemo WHERE name = 'SMITH';
< SMITH     , SMITH      >
1 row found.
Command> SELECT * FROM typedemo WHERE name2 = 'SMITH';
< SMITH     , SMITH      >
1 row found.
Command> # Expect 0 rows; blank padded comparison semantics.
Command> SELECT * FROM typedemo WHERE name > 'SMITH';
0 rows found.
Command> SELECT * FROM typedemo WHERE name2 > 'SMITH';
0 rows found.

The following example alters table typedemo adding column name3. The column name3 is defined with character semantics.

Command> ALTER TABLE typedemo ADD COLUMN name3 CHAR (10 CHAR);
Command> DESCRIBE typedemo;
Table USER.TYPEDEMO:
  Columns:
    NAME                            CHAR (20)
    NAME2                           TT_CHAR (20)
    NAME3                           CHAR (10 CHAR)
1 table found.

NCHAR

The NCHAR data type is a fixed length string of two-byte Unicode characters. NCHAR data types are padded to the specified length with the Unicode space character U+0020 SPACE. Blank-padded comparison semantics are used.

The following example ALTERs table typedemo adding column Name4. Data type is NCHAR.

Command> ALTER TABLE typedemo ADD COLUMN Name4 NCHAR (10);
Command> DESCRIBE typedemo;

Table USER.TYPEDEMO:
  Columns:
    NAME                            CHAR (20)
    NAME2                           TT_CHAR (20)
    NAME3                           CHAR (10 CHAR)
    NAME4                           NCHAR (10)
1 table found.

VARCHAR2

The VARCHAR2 data type specifies a variable length character string. When you define a VARCHAR2 column, you define the maximum number of bytes or characters. Each value is stored exactly as you specify it. The value cannot exceed the maximum length of the column.

You must specify the maximum length. The minimum must be at least 1 byte. Use the CHAR qualifier to specify the maximum length in characters. For example, VARCHAR2 (10 CHAR).

The size of a character ranges from 1 byte to 4 bytes depending on the database character set. The BYTE and CHAR qualifiers override the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS parameter setting. For more information on NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS, see "ALTER SESSION" and "Setting globalization support attributes" in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Operations Guide.

The NULL value is stored as a single bit inside the tuple for each nullable field. A NOT INLINE VARCHAR2(n) whose value is NULL takes (null bit) + 4 bytes of storage on 32-bit platforms, whereas an INLINE VARCHAR2(n) whose value is NULL takes (null bit) + 4 bytes + n bytes of storage, or n more bytes of storage than a NOT INLINE VARCHAR2(n) whose value is NULL. This storage principal holds for all variable length data types: TT_VARCHAR, TT_NVARCHAR, VARCHAR2, NVARCHAR2, VARBINARY.

The following example alters table typedemo adding columns name5 and name6. name5 is defined with type VARCHAR2. name6 is defined with TT_VARCHAR. The example illustrates the use of nonpadded comparison semantics with column name5 and blank-padded comparison semantics with column name6:

Command> ALTER TABLE typedemo ADD COLUMN name5 VARCHAR2 (20);
Command> ALTER TABLE typedemo ADD COLUMN name6 TT_VARCHAR (20);
Command> DESCRIBE typedemo;
Table USER.TYPEDEMO:
  Columns:
    NAME                            CHAR (20)
    NAME2                           TT_CHAR (20)
    NAME3                           CHAR (10 CHAR)
    NAME4                           NCHAR (10)
    NAME5                           VARCHAR2 (20) INLINE
    NAME6                           TT_VARCHAR (20) INLINE
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> #Insert SMITH followed by 5 spaces into all columns
Command> INSERT INTO typedemo VALUES
> ('SMITH     ', 'SMITH     ', 'SMITH     ', 'SMITH     ','SMITH     ', 'SMITH');
1 row inserted.
Command> # Expect 0; Nonpadded comparison semantics
Command> SELECT COUNT (*) FROM typedemo WHERE name5 = 'SMITH';
< 0 >
1 row found.
Command> # Expect 1; Blank-padded comparison semantics
Command> SELECT COUNT (*) FROM typedemo WHERE name6 = 'SMITH';
< 1 >
1 row found.
Command> # Expect 1; Nonpadded comparison semantics
Command> SELECT COUNT (*) FROM typedemo WHERE name5 > 'SMITH';
< 1 >
1 row found.
Command> # Expect 0; Blank-padded comparison semantics
Command> SELECT COUNT (*) FROM typedemo WHERE name6 > 'SMITH';
< 0 >
1 row found.

NVARCHAR2

The NVARCHAR2 data type is a variable length string of two-byte Unicode characters. When you define an NVARCHAR2 column, you define the maximum number of characters. Each value is stored exactly as you specify it. The value cannot exceed the maximum length of the column. You must specify a length.

The following example alters table typedemo adding column name7. Data type is NVARCHAR2.

Command> ALTER TABLE typedemo ADD COLUMN Nnme7 NVARCHAR2 (20);
Command> DESCRIBE typedemo;
Table USER1.TYPEDEMO:
  Columns:
    NAME                            CHAR (20)
    NAME2                           TT_CHAR (20)
    NAME3                           CHAR (10 CHAR)
    NAME4                           NCHAR (10)
    NAME5                           VARCHAR2 (20) INLINE
    NAME6                           TT_VARCHAR (20) INLINE
    NAME7                           NVARCHAR2 (20) INLINE
1 table found.

Exact and approximate numeric data types

TimesTen supports both exact and approximate numeric data types. Arithmetic operations can be performed on numeric types only. Similarly, SUM and AVG aggregates require numeric types.

The exact numeric types are:

• NUMBER

• TT_BIGINT

• TT_INTEGER

• TT_SMALLINT

• TT_TINYINT

The approximate types are:

• BINARY_DOUBLE

• BINARY_FLOAT

• FLOAT and FLOAT (n)

Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col6 NUMBER;
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col7 NUMBER (4,2);
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col8 NUMBER (4,-2);
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col8 NUMBER (2,4);
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col9 NUMBER (2,4);
Command> DESCRIBE numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
  Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            TT_SMALLINT
    COL3                            TT_INTEGER
    COL4                            TT_INTEGER
    COL5                            TT_BIGINT
    COL6                            NUMBER
    COL7                            NUMBER (4,2)
    COL8                            NUMBER (4,-2)
    COL9                            NUMBER (2,4)
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)

Command> CREATE TABLE numbercombo (col1 NUMBER, col2 NUMBER (3), col3 NUMBER (6,2), col4 NUMBER (6,1), col5 NUMBER (6,-2));
Command> DESCRIBE numbercombo;
Table USER1.NUMBERCOMBO:
  Columns:
    COL1                            NUMBER
    COL2                            NUMBER (3)
    COL3                            NUMBER (6,2)
    COL4                            NUMBER (6,1)
    COL5                            NUMBER (6,-2)
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> INSERT INTO numbercombo VALUES (123.89,123.89,123.89,123.89,123.89);
1 row inserted.
Command> VERTICAL ON;
Command> SELECT * FROM numbercombo;
COL1:   123.89
  COL2:   124
  COL3:   123.89
  COL4:   123.9
  COL5:   100
1 row found.

Command> CREATE TABLE invnumbervalue (col6 NUMBER (4,2));
Command> INSERT INTO invnumbervalue VALUES (123.89);
 2923: Number type value overflow
The command failed.

Command> CREATE TABLE numbercombo2 (col1 NUMBER (4,5), col2 NUMBER (4,5), col3 NUMBER (4,5), col4 NUMBER (2,7), col5 NUMBER (2,7), col6 NUMBER (2,5), col7 NUMBER (2,5));
Command> INSERT INTO numbercombo2 VALUES (.01234, .00012, .000127, .0000012, .00000123, 1.2e-4, 1.2e-5);
1 row inserted.
Command> DESCRIBE numbercombo2;
Table USER1.NUMBERCOMBO2:
  Columns:
    COL1                            NUMBER (4,5)
    COL2                            NUMBER (4,5)
    COL3                            NUMBER (4,5)
    COL4                            NUMBER (2,7)
    COL5                            NUMBER (2,7)
    COL6                            NUMBER (2,5)
    COL7                            NUMBER (2,5)
1 table found.

(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> SELECT * FROM numbercombo2;
COL1:   .01234
  COL2:   .00012
  COL3:   .00013
  COL4:   .0000012
  COL5:   .0000012
  COL6:   .00012
  COL7:   .00001
1 row found.

Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD COLUMN col5 BIGINT;
 3300: BIGINT is not a valid type name; use TT_BIGINT instead
The command failed.
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD COLUMN col5 TT_BIGINT;
Command> DESCRIBE numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
  Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            TT_SMALLINT
    COL3                            TT_INTEGER
    COL4                            TT_INTEGER
    COL5                            TT_BIGINT
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)

Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col3 INT;
Command> DESCRIBE numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
  Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            TT_SMALLINT
    COL3                            NUMBER (38)
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics DROP col3;
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col3 INTEGER;
Command> DESCRIBE numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            TT_SMALLINT
    COL3                            NUMBER (38)
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics DROP col3;
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD COLUMN col3 TT_INTEGER;
Command> DESCRIBE numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            TT_SMALLINT
    COL3                            TT_INTEGER
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD col4 TT_INT;
Command> DESCRIBE numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            TT_SMALLINT
    COL3                            TT_INTEGER
    COL4                            TT_INTEGER
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)

Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD COLUMN col2 SMALLINT;
Command> DESCRIBE Numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
  Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            NUMBER (38)
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics DROP COLUMN col2;
Command> ALTER TABLE numerics ADD COLUMN col2 TT_SMALLINT;
Command> DESCRIBE NUMERICS;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
  Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
    COL2                            TT_SMALLINT
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)

Command> CREATE TABLE numerics (col1 TINYINT);
 3300: TINYINT is not a valid type name; use TT_TINYINT instead
The command failed.
Command> CREATE TABLE numerics (col1 TT_TINYINT);
Command> DESCRIBE numerics;
Table USER1.NUMERICS:
  Columns:
    COL1                            TT_TINYINT
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)

Command> CREATE TABLE BfBd (Col1 BINARY_FLOAT, Col2 BINARY_DOUBLE);
Command> DESCRIBE BfBd;
Table UISER1.BFBD:
  Columns:
    COL1                            BINARY_FLOAT
    COL2                            BINARY_DOUBLE
1 table found.
(primary key columns are indicated with *)

DATE

The format of a DATE value is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS and ranges from -4712-01-01 (January 1, 4712 BC) to 9999-12-31 (December 31, 9999 AD). There are no fractional seconds. The DATE type requires 7 bytes of storage.

TimesTen does not support user-specified NLS_DATE_FORMAT settings. The SQL TO_CHAR and TO_DATE functions can be used to specify other formats.

TIME

The format of a TIME value is HH:MI:SS and ranges from 00:00:00 (12:00:00 AM to 23:59:59 (11:59:59 PM). The TIME data type requires 8 bytes of storage.

TIMESTAMP

The format of a TIMESTAMP value is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS [.FFFFFFFFF]. The fractional seconds precision range is 0 to 9. The default is 6. The date range is from -4712-01-01 (January 1, 4712 BC) to 9999-12-31 (December 31, 9999 AD). The TIMESTAMP type requires 12 bytes of storage. The TIMESTAMP type has a larger date range than the TT_TIMESTAMP and supports more precision than the TT_TIMESTAMP.

TimesTen does not support user-specified NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT settings. The SQL TO_CHAR and TO_DATE functions can be used to specify other formats.

TT_DATE

The format of a TT_DATE value is YYYY-MM-DD and ranges from 1753-01-01 (January 1, 1753) to 9999-12-31 (December 31, 9999 AD). The TT_DATE data type requires 4 bytes of storage.

TT_TIMESTAMP

The format of a TT_TIMESTAMP value is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS [.FFFFFF]. The fractional seconds precision is 6. The range is from 1753-01-01 00:00:00 (January 1, 1753 midnight) to 9999-12-31 23:59:59 (December 31, 9999 11:59:59 PM). The TT_TIMESTAMP type requires 8 bytes of storage. TT_TIMESTAMP is faster than the TIMESTAMP data type and has a smaller storage size than the TIMESTAMP type.

Using INTERVAL data types

If you are using TimesTen type mode, for information on INTERVAL, refer to documentation from previous releases of TimesTen.

TimesTen supports interval type only in a constant specification and intermediate expression result. Interval type can not be the final result. Columns cannot be defined with an INTERVAL type. See "Type specifications".

You can specify a single-field interval literal in an expression, but you cannot specify a complete expression that returns an interval data type.

TimesTen supports interval literals of the form:

INTERVAL [+\-] CharString IntervalQualifier

Using DATE and TIME data types

This section shows some DATE, TIME and TIMESTAMP data type examples:

To create a table named sample that contains both a column named dcol with the type DATE and a column named tcol with the type TIME, use:

CREATE TABLE sample (tcol TIME, dcol DATE);

To insert DATE and TIME values into the sample table, use:

INSERT INTO sample VALUES (TIME '12:00:00', DATE '1998-10-28');

To select all rows in the sample table that are between noon and 4:00 p.m. on October 29, 1998, use:

SELECT * FROM sample 
WHERE dcol = DATE '1998-10-29' 
AND tcol BETWEEN TIME '12:00:00' AND TIME '16:00:00';

To create a table named sample2 that contains a column named tscol with the type TIMESTAMP and then select all rows in the table that are between noon and 4:00 p.m. on October 29, 1998, use the statements:

CREATE TABLE sample2 (tscol TIMESTAMP);
INSERT INTO sample2 VALUES (TIMESTAMP '1998-10-28 12:00:00');
SELECT * FROM sample2
WHERE tscol
BETWEEN TIMESTAMP '1998-10-29 12:00:00'
AND '1998-10-29 16:00:00';

Handling timezone conversions

TimesTen does not support TIMEZONE. TIME and TIMESTAMP data type values are stored without making any adjustment for time difference. Applications must assume one time zone and convert TIME and TIMESTAMP to that time zone before sending values to the database. For example, an application can assume its timezone to be Pacific Standard Time. If the application is using TIME and TIMESTAMP values from the Pacific Daylight Time or Eastern Daylight/Standard Time, the application must convert TIME and TIMESTAMP to Pacific Standard Time.

Datetime and interval data types in arithmetic operations

If you are using TimesTen type mode, see documentation from previous releases of TimesTen for information about datetime and interval types in arithmetic operations.

Datetime refers to DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP data types. Date and time arithmetic is supported with the following syntax:

• TimeVal1 - TimeVal2 or TimestampVal1 - TimestampVal2 or DateVal1 - DateVal2 returns the difference as an interval day to second.

• TT_DateVal1 - TT_DateVal2 returns the number of days difference as an integer.

• DateTimeVal {+|-} IntervalVal

• IntervalVal + DateTimeVal

• IntervalVal1 {+|-} IntervalVal2

• IntervalVal {*|/} NumericVal

• NumericVal * IntervalVal

The INTERVAL data type cannot be the final result of a complete expression. The EXTRACT function must be used to extract the desired component of this interval result.

The following table lists the data type that results from each operation:

SELECT tt_date1 - tt_date2 FROM t1;
SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM timestamp1-timestamp2) FROM t1;
SELECT * FROM t1 WHERE timestamp1 - timestamp2 = NUMTODSINTERVAL(10, 'DAY');
SELECT SYSDATE + NUMTODSINTERVAL(20,'SECOND') FROM dual;
SELECT EXTRACT (SECOND FROM timestamp1-timestamp2) FROM dual;
/* select the microsecond difference between two timestamp values d1 and d2 */
SELECT 1000000*(EXTRACT(DAY FROM d1-d2)*24*3600+
EXTRACT(HOUR FROM d1-d2)*3600+
EXTRACT(MINUTE FROM d1-d2)*60+EXTRACT(SECOND FROM d1-d2)) FROM d1;

This example inserts timestamp values into 2 columns and then subtracts the two values using the EXTRACT function:

Command> CREATE TABLE ts (id TIMESTAMP, id2 TIMESTAMP);
Command> INSERT INTO ts VALUES (TIMESTAMP '2007-01-20 12:45:23', TIMESTAMP '2006-12-25 17:34:22');
1 row inserted.
Command> SELECT EXTRACT (DAY FROM id - id2) FROM ts;
< 25 >
1 row found.

The following queries return errors. You cannot select an interval result:

SELECT TIMESTAMP1 -TIMESTAMP2 FROM t1;
SELECT DATE1 - DATE2 FROM t1;;

You cannot compare an INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH with an INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND:

SELECT * FROM t1 WHERE timestamp1 - timestamp2 = NUMTOYMINTERVAL(10, 'YEAR');

You cannot compare an INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND with an INTERVAL DAY:

SELECT * FROM t1 WHERE timestamp1 - timdstamp2 = INTERVAL '10' DAY;

You cannot extract YEAR from an INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND:

SELECT EXTRACT (YEAR FROM timestamp1 - timestamp2) FROM dual;

Restrictions on datetime and interval arithmetic operations

Consider these restrictions when performing datetime and interval arithmetic:

• The results for addition and subtraction with DATE and TIMESTAMP types for INTERVAL YEAR, INTERVAL MONTH are not closed. For example, adding 1 year to the DATE or TIMESTAMP of '2004-02-29' results in a date arithmetic error (TimesTen error message 2787) because February 29, 2005 does not exist (2005 is not a leap year). Adding INTERVAL '1' month to DATE '2005-01-30' also results in the same error because February never has 30 days.

• The results are closed for INTERVAL DAY.

Numeric values

A larger value is greater than a smaller value. -1 is less than 10 and -10 is less than -1.

The floating-point value NaN is greater than any other numeric value and is equal to itself.

Date values

A later date is considered greater than an earlier one. For example, the date equivalent of '10-AUG-2005' is less than that of '30-AUG-2006' and '30-AUG-2006 1:15pm' is greater than '30-AUG-2006 10:10am'.

Character values

Character values are compared by:

• Binary and linguistic sorting

• Blank-padded and nonpadded comparison semantics

'a   ' = 'a'

'a   ' > 'a'

Implicit data type conversion

The following rules apply:

• Conversions between exact numeric values (TT_TINYINT, TT_SMALLINT, TT_INTEGER, TT_BIGINT, NUMBER) and floating-point values (BINARY_FLOAT, BINARY_DOUBLE) can be inexact because the exact numeric values use decimal precision whereas the floating-point numbers use binary precision.

• When comparing a character value with any date, time, or datetime value, TimesTen converts the character data to the date, time, or datetime value.

• Implicit and explicit CHAR/VARCHAR2 <-> NCHAR/NVARCHAR2 conversions are supported except when the character set is TIMESTEN8. An example of explicit conversion:

  Command> CREATE TABLE convdemo (c1 CHAR (10), x1 TT_INTEGER);
  Command> CREATE TABLE convdemo2 (c1 NCHAR (10), x2 TT_INTEGER);
  Command> INSERT INTO convdemo VALUES ('ABC', 10);
  1 row inserted.
  Command> INSERT INTO convdemo VALUES ('def', 100);
  1 row inserted.
  Command> INSERT INTO convdemo2 SELECT * FROM convdemo;
  2 rows inserted.
  Command> SELECT x1,x2,convdemo.c1, convdemo2.c1 
         > FROM convdemo, convdemo2 where Ccnvdemo.c1 = convdemo2.c1;
  X1, X2, C1, C1
  < 10, 10, ABC       , ABC        >
  < 100, 100, def       , def        >
  2 rows found.
  

Constant values

You can use constant values in places where a floating-point constant is allowed: The supported constant values are:

• BINARY_FLOAT_INFINITY

• -BINARY_FLOAT_INFINITY

• BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY

• -BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY

• BINARY_FLOAT_NAN

• BINARY_DOUBLE_NAN

In the following example, a table is created with a column of type BINARY_FLOAT and a column of type TT_INTEGER. BINARY_FLOAT_INFINITY and BINARY_FLOAT_NAN are inserted into the column of type BINARY_FLOAT.

Command> CREATE TABLE bfdemo (id BINARY_FLOAT, Ii2 TT_INTEGER);
Command> INSERT INTO bfdemo VALUES (BINARY_FLOAT_INFINITY, 50);
1 row inserted.
Command> INSERT INTO bfdemo VALUES (BINARY_FLOAT_NAN, 100);
1 row inserted.
Command> SELECT * FROM bfdemo;
< INF, 50 >
< NAN, 100 >
2 rows found.

Primary key values

Inf, -Inf, and NaN are acceptable values in columns defined with a primary key. This is a deviation in behavior from NULL. NULL values are not allowed on columns defined with a primary key.

You can only insert Inf, -Inf, and NaN values into BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE columns.

Selecting Inf and NaN (floating-point conditions)

Floating-point conditions determine whether an expression is infinite or is the undefined result of an operation (NaN or "not a number").

In the syntax:

Expression IS [NOT] {NAN| INFINITE}

Expression must either resolve to a numeric data type or to a data type that can be implicitly converted to a numeric data type.

The following table describes the floating-point conditions.

SELECT * FROM bfdemo WHERE id IS NOT NAN;
ID, ID2
< INF, 50 >
1 row found.

SELECT * FROM bfdemo WHERE id IS NOT INFINITE;
ID, ID2
< NAN, 100 >
1 row found.

The following rules apply to comparisons with Inf and Nan:

• Comparison between Inf (or -Inf) and a finite value are as expected. For example, 5 > -Inf.

• (Inf = Inf) and (Inf > -Inf) both evaluate to True.

• (NaN = NaN) evaluates to True.

In reference to collating sequences:

• -Inf sorts lower than any other value.

• Inf sorts higher than any other value, but lower than Nan and NULL.

• NaN sorts higher than Inf.

• NULL sorts higher than NaN. NULL is always the largest value in any collating sequence.

Expressions involving Inf and NaN

• Expressions containing floating-point values may generate Inf, -Inf, or NaN. This can occur either because the expression generated overflow or exceptional conditions or because one or more of the values in the expression was Inf, -Inf, or NaN. Inf and NaN are generated in overflow or division by 0 conditions.

• Inf, -Inf, and NaN values are not ignored in aggregate functions. NULL values are. If you wish to exclude Inf and NaN from aggregates (or from any selection), use both the IS NOT NAN and IS NOT INFINITE predicates.

Data types supported in TimesTen type mode

Oracle data types supported in TimesTen type mode